This is Seth

Week one is in the books! And towards what goals did we strive, to what ends did we march?

No idea.

Here's what I do know.

About halfway through the week, my manager told me that my team was headed in a new direction. Not in one that is parallel with the most of our skillsets. Joy.

That same night, the one, final, original fire detector in the house decided to jump the shark and skip the ubiquitous "chirping" to let you know it's low on batteries. It went straight to firing off at 4am mode.

So, shit sleep due to stress and starting my day 2.5 hours earlier than expected.

But, Peloton just released a new ride style, which is basically a single player version of Tron. It's the bee's knees. I really enjoyed the ride I did yesterday and will probably stick with those rides more. I missed out on rides from Wed-Fri and still managed about 25 miles over 3 workouts, so not a terrible showing.

Anywho, what to plan for. What to aim at for next week? 52 hours of sleep? 30 miles on the bike, and a non-bike workout? Find time to start reading again? 

I wonder if I should track my home projects here too... I've got a lot of things to do before we can start nesting in the existing workout room, soon to be nursery.

I think this challenge is going to be a bit loosey goosey, to be completely honest. I don't have the brainpower to put together SMART goals when I don't really know what I want to work towards. 

What I know I want is some form of consistency.

Before the baby comes and uproots all my built-in routines, I need to strengthen the ones that aren't set in stone... like: sleep, workout, self-care.

That's the theme.

22 hours ago, Tanktimus the Encourager said:

I've done many challenges where the whole challenge was a placeholder.

What's the saying, "showing up is half the battle"? Seems about right.

This is a reminder to myself to actually write up a challenge thread.

I'm in it. Just need to figure out goals and stuff. But tonight, I want to sleep.

Hey, I finished a challenge!

I kind of went awol there for... a week or so... but, I kept doing my stuffs, mostly.

Quote

 

In the next five weeks, I will:

1. Ride my Peloton for 30 miles a week
   1. That should work out to 3+ rides a week
2. Finish two books
   1. Die with Zero, by Bill Perkins
   2. Raising Good Humans, Hunter Clarke-Fields
3. Get 50 hours of sleep a week
   1. Get at least 7 hours a night, that's not asking a lot... but, here we are

 

Let's check in on how I did comparatively:

1. Ride my Peloton for 30 miles a week.
   1. This went really well! I think I missed one week by about 3 miles, but came in above in every other week. 30 miles seems like the sweet spot too, it allows for a bootcamp class in the mix as long as I hit two other decent 30 minute rides.
2. Finish two books.
   1. Die with Zero. Done. Finished. Liked some of it. Not all of it. Too pretentious. 
   2. Raising Good Humans. Not done, maybe 1/3 of the way through? Not a light read... and I've not devoted enough time to it.
3. Get 50 hours of sleep a week.
   1. This was the hardest one. Mainly because on days I would drink, I'd sleep like shit. Seems like a rather obvious fix, right?
   2. I was usually within a standard deviation of 50 by 2-3 hours every week, except for one atrocious week where I mailed it in.

So, first challenge back, not too shabby. I know where to go from here. 
I've enjoyed diving into a few other folk's challenges, though I mainly stuck to the old names that I knew. I feel like I should branch out and find some new(to me) recruits to follow/challenge next time.

On 1/28/2022 at 12:05 PM, bigm141414 said:

 

Modesty, thy name has never been Setheth. 

59 minutes ago, spezzy said:

hello i have a present for you

 

 

@bigm141414

Oh goodness. Look at these babes... all rocking Biggum's Hawaiian loungewear line. 

Shocking no one, I showed the most skin

I didn't do a wrap up post for week 3. Oops.

See, what happened was... it snowed on Friday night and on Saturday morning, I challenged the whole neighborhood to a snowball fight. After shoveling out my driveway and the lady next to me.

I got 14k steps that day. And burnt close to 5k calories, according to my fitbit. 

For last week, I hit my mileage goal for rides. Hit my sleep goal, actually added an average of +20 minutes per night of sleep. That's probably the biggest win. 

The goal that I'm worried about is the reading one. I read a little of the Raising Good Humans on Sat/Sun but not a lot. It's not as captivating, like most books on Mindfulness. "Be present", yeah, I get it. Really hoping it gets better as I progress.

So far this week, I've not opened the book. I have taken a ride and a bootcamp class, just trying to get my back and hamstrings to not hate me after Saturday's escapades. I'm about 10+ miles in so far and should make the last 20 easily enough.

We're supposed to get more snow this weekend, which... I love/hate at this point. My kid goes bananas. The city shuts down and things get really ugly out here. So, I'm 50/50 on it. 

We'll see how the rest of the week progresses.

On 1/20/2022 at 5:57 AM, KB Girl said:

Glad she's feeling a bit better then, sounds like you really needed that.

I did. We're being better this time around about being open about hitting our limits.

I've found that I've got this really awful knack of not expressing when I'm under too much stress and am about to snap and then being super upset when no one else realizes all these things that I'm doing such a good job of hiding. I've heard this is common of my kind? Those men raised by emotionally stunted fathers? Sound familiar to anyone?

Anywho, little dude and I were home alone again today because his school canceled due to the potential inclement weather here in the mid atlantic area. It actually didn't snow until 6pm at night, but sure, let's keep the kids at home anyway. So, tonight is another night where dad needs dad time. Between trying to juggle full time work and full time parent, I honestly don't know how parents made it through the first year of lock down. Whole lot of wine maybe?

I'm at mile 26 for the week or so for my rides. I'm looking to get in a bootcamp ride tomorrow. I've been enjoying the new instructor Callie's rides. She's basically a more religious version of my partner, so.. she's both pleasing to ride with, but something always seems just a little off.

I started up the "Raising Good Humans" book. Really, I just read the forword/introduction of the book. It's written about the mindful approach to parenting that one frazzled mom came up with after finding herself hating the fact that she was screaming in anger at her two year old daughter when she wouldn't stop crying. Once again, for any parents out there, sound familiar? I'm liking her break down of the book so far, looking forward to diving into it when the entire city gets shut down after 3" of snow overnight tomorrow. 

1 hour ago, bigm141414 said:

 

Were you the victor of this glorious combat? Or did you perish with honor? 

1 hour ago, Elastigirl said:

A balloon sword fight sounds like a very fun way to get some movement in! Hope your family is feeling better.

There was a single meltdown when he got upset that I was attacking him whenever he lost his weapon. So, we made a rule that you couldn't attack when the other didn't have a weapon in hand... and then I exploited that rule.
Teach them young. Exploit all the rules!

It's hard to say who won, because mom got home during our fight and turned down our playlist and yelled at us for being so loud... then he stayed awake til 830. So much for tiring him out. Kids are a fucking hand full.

I ran out of energy on Sunday. I was actually quite sore/spent from that longer ride I did on Saturday, in order to barely miss my quota, and just didn't have anything left on Sunday.

My partner stepped in and gave me the afternoon off. So, I played some vidya games from 1-4, had a beer or three, and just had some Seth time.

Monday, I had a really rough day at work. The hits keep coming. I did manage to finish the "Die with Zero" book though. At some point, I'll pool my thoughts together on it. It's not a common mind-set, so I can see why it ruffles a few feathers.

As for today, I finally got in a work out. I actually did a 30 minute ride while my son hung out on the iPad in the same room as me. 9.5 miles with Hannah Frankson, cause she's my fav. 
I may have actually burned more calories afterwards though, when he challenged me to a balloon sword battle for like 20 minutes straight. Hopefully that wore him out for the night, I know it did me.

Crashing on the couch with the mrs tonight to watch some more QE. Her test came back positive on Monday, so I scheduled tests for the rest of us at CVS over the weekend to make sure all three of us have moved on/shed/defeated the Omnislash variant by then.

Week 2 complete.

I have some excuses to make, for reasons why I didn't do stellar. I did alright though.

Week Two Rides: 9.3 + 6.5 + 13.6 = 29.4 miles

Week Two Reads : I'm still working on "Die with Zero". I didn't spend a lot of time reading this past week.

Week Two Sleep : 9 + 7.75 + 6.5 + 7 + 5.5 + 8.5 + whatever I sleep tonight = 44.25 hours slept(so far) Pretty sure I can manage 5.75 hours tonight

I technically failed the riding challenge this week. By a half mile. I'm going to count that in the standard deviation, as I was over by 8 miles last week. 
Sleep was mostly decent... though I stayed up way later than I should have on Thursday night after D&D night. I was diving into Horizon Zero Dawn and just... was chasing the dragon.

Reading was shit. I was having a bad week at work and was really up in my own head for most of the time. Plus, my partner is mostly bed ridden for the entirety of the week, so there's a lot of cooking, cleaning, and child entertaining that I'm doing in my "down time". 

But, I still think I had a good week. I definitely cut down on the drinking during the week, which was getting a little out of hand in the latter half of December, as I had taken the most of the month off work. So, small steps towards normalcy.

On to week three!

6 hours ago, spezzy said:

 

 

I don't know her - but I know of the gym and some of the people that work there and go there and I've only heard good things.  Unfortunately they opened a month or two after I left Texas

Ahh that makes sense. I sometimes forget that we're just a wee bit older than her at 22. 😮

So, we were watching Queer Eye last night and there's an episode of a power lifter named Angel Flores in Austin. I said out loud, "huh, wonder if Dani or Spezzy know her".

And I remembered that I can actually ask you now cause I'm back on here!

So, do you? Cause her gym looked amazing.

Lifting is cool and everything, but I really only have to questions.

1. Are you subscribed to Yoga with Adriene too?

2. What language are you using for ML? Python, Scala, R?

4 hours ago, bigm141414 said:

 

 

 

That is exactly what happened. Golden Monkeys will get you every time.

Week 2 check in!

I really dialed it in on my sleep, as apparently my body needed it. Monday was 9 hours, Tuesday was 7.75 hours, and yesterday... well yesterday my back kept me up and only got 6.5 hours.

I'm not sure what I did, but my back has been bugging me again. It is at the point where it wakes me up at night and then is tight for the first 90 minutes of my day. Usually, enough cat/cow stretches and a very hot soak in the shower can remedy it.

As I slept so much on Sunday and Monday nights, I've only gotten two rides in so far this week. a 9.3 miler, where I put on some City Skylines youtube video and zoned out for a half hour, and a 6.5 mile groove ride with Emma. Bless her heart, she is an amazing DJ.

On the home front, I spent a lot of time on the couch Monday night reading and last night catching up on the new season of Queer Eye with my partner. She's super preggo mode and also potentially COVID positive at this point, so just a joy to be around. I love her face.

A dad win of the week, I got my 5yo to ride his bike around the lake nearby for a 1.5 mile loop. I had a nice walk/jog as I kept up with him and he chased some poor older lady with her weiner dog. It was glorious.

All in all, a good week so far.

On 1/6/2022 at 8:21 PM, bigm141414 said:

 

I put on my robe and wizard hat...

 

No, wait. That's the wrong type of dirty RP game >.> 

Oh jeeez, I haven't heard that quote in a while. hah!

So, end of week 1 summation?

I think I hit all my week one goals. Going to start tallying these things up though, as I just gave up on mathing the miles after a while for my rides.

Week One Rides: 8.9 + 5.4 + 5.8 + 5.4 + 4.3 + 8.5 = 38.3 miles so far

Week One Reads : I'm about halfway through "Die with Zero". I also made it through 2 audio books, the first two books in the Sadie Price FBI Series(aka the ones available on Hoopla).

Week One Sleep : 7.5 + 8 + 7.5 + 6.75 + 6.25 + 5.25 + 5.5 + 8.25 = 55 hours slept

Uhh, I didn't sleep with my fitbit on the last two nights, so I'll have to guestimate on those nights. As assumed, my Thursday was a bad night's sleep and then Friday was almost just as bad, as I stayed up watching the Witcher.

But, that's week one in the books! Progress, or at least drawing a line in the sand to beat moving forward. I'll take it. 

1 hour ago, Knightwatch said:

Oh, hullo!

Reunion Thread!

34 minutes ago, bigm141414 said:

 

Oooo. Are you the DM, or a PC? What's the campaign so far? And do you often mumble to yourself "Is it Thursday yet?"

 

It's a pay to play game, which makes me feel a little dirty... but it's cheaper than therapy.

I play a dragonborn paladin of mielikki, we've completed the first chapter of the Sunless Citadel and are now headed to Chult to follow up on some issue going on down there.

Tons of fun!

Day 3 Check-In

I took a rest day yesterday. My body was tired and my mind was racing after my first day back to work in two weeks, so we watched the new season of Queer Eye after the kiddo went to bed and then I went to sleep shortly thereafter. 

This morning I snuck in a quick ride and stretch while my kiddo watched some new Bake Off show on Disney+

That puts the weekly total to ~20 miles so far. Should be easy to wrap up the last 10 miles in the rest of the week.

Sleep has been doing alright. I had a hard time falling asleep last night, but still managed just over 7 hours thanks to sleeping in a bit this morning. I've got to get ahead a bit in my sleep because I know Thursdays are always a late night as it's my one night out of the house socializing at my weekly D&D game. There's beer involved, so sleep doesn't come easily on those nights. 

I'm about halfway through Die with Zero, just dove into the part about using money for kids now instead of waiting for an inheritance where you don't get to see them enjoy it. I liked that... more fun now, when I can actually see them being happy. Mi gusta.

2 hours ago, nightlight said:

'sup panda friend?

You're on here still too?

I don't have to just instagram stalk you?

1 hour ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

One of the best things any parent can do for a little girl is to consistently counter this destructive messaging and do their best to make sure she grows up knowing that she is wonderful and lovable exactly as she is. Because of it, even.   

Thanks Scaly, that's a great take.
I'll add that to the list.

6 minutes ago, Waldo said:

Huh, so basically everyone in this thread has been here forever.  Hi y'all.  I too am rockin the dadbod these days.

Waldo!

Look at all these oldbies I've found!

4 hours ago, 18ck said:

 You've got a lot of life ahead and your grandchildren might not be able to support you when you're a hundred and thirty and gave run out of money to feed your Werthers Original habit. 

I just came across a blurb in my evening read that I think scopes it out well:

"... I'm assuming that your goal in life is not to maximize your income and wealth but to maximize your lifetime fulfillment, which comes from experiences and your laying memories of those experiences. And just at you're trying to maximize your own fulfillment, you're trying to maximize your children's fulfillment too."

31 minutes ago, bigm141414 said:

 

So what I am hearing  reading is you wanna play some D&D then? We can make that happen. 

...are you trying to say that you're not already Batman?

Cause I was pretty sure you were.